k, the little life which existed
being concentrated near the bow, where the captain was either lashed
to the foremast, or in shelter in the pilot-house. Never a soul
appeared on deck, the force of the hurricane being such that for
four hours any man would have been carried off his feet. Through
the swift strange evening our hopes rested on the engine, and amidst
the uproar and din, and drifting spray, and shocks of pitiless seas,
there was a sublime repose in the spectacle of the huge walking
beams, alternately rising and falling, slowly, calmly, regularly, as
if the Nevada were on a holiday trip within the Golden Gate. At
eight in the evening we could hear each other speak, and a little
later, through the great masses of hissing drift we discerned black
water. At nine Captain Blethen appeared, smoking a cigar with
nonchalance, and told us that the hurricane had nearly boxed the
compass, and had been the most severe he had known for seventeen
years. This grand old man, nearly the oldest captain in the
Pa